Someone Was Arrested for Marijuana Every 45 Seconds in 2014

Marijuana arrests in 2014 were up from the previous year.

Decriminalizing marijuana or legalizing it (See: Colorado, Washington) would mean less people arrested and less people incarcerated for low-level drug offenses. It would mean a significantly smaller number than last year’s reported 700,993 arrests for marijuana according to FBI data, or one arrest every 45 seconds—up 7,000 from 2013. Almost 90 percent of those arrests were for possession.

Despite continued progress, as in the aforementioned states, and the majority of U.S. people agreeing marijuana should be legal, harsh marijuana laws in the U.S. still exist in places such as Oklahoma where someone in possession of any amount of marijuana can end up in jail for a year and if caught a second time, can get 2 to 10 years in prison. According to a report cited by the American Civil Liberties Union more than $3.6 billion is spent annually to enforce these kinds of laws against marijuana possession.

As Amanda Reiman, manager of marijuana law and policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, reminds us, these arrests create problems down the road when individuals try to find a job or a home. A criminal history can cost them health care, food stamps, and can also put their children at risk by involving Child Protective Services. Reiman points out that these consequences affect an individual far more than the drug, which just goes to show we need prison reform now.

[via Huffington Post]

More from Complex